When Bob graduated in1972 he immediately moved to Toronto to start his marketing, sales and general management career, joining Procter & Gamble. He stayed at Procter just long enough to meet his wife Marilyn, who was also working at P&G at the time. They married in 1976. Despite lots of practice, they did not have a child until their son David was born in 1986.
Bob’s professional career included stints at Pepsi, McGuiness Distillers (as VP Sales & Marketing, – his favourite job by far), Nabisco and Conagra Grocery Products (as Canadian President), before finishing his full time work as President of a private Canadian company. He retired at age 57. Having spent most of his career in the food and beverage industries, he then ended up returning to lead the grocery industry’s charitable foundation on a part time basis for 16 months. He also did volunteer assignments for CESO in his early retirement years in Ukraine and Armenia.
In his later years in business and early years in retirement he spent 10+ years as a member of an angel investing group, 11 years volunteering on the Board of Directors for ABC Life Literacy Canada, including 6 years as Board Chair, and 6 years volunteering on the Board of the Toronto and Region Conservation Foundation, including 3 years as Vice Chair.
Bob has always enjoyed international travel, having visited 19 countries in Europe so far, 6 in Africa, 6 in Asia, and 6 in North America, as well Peru, Australia and New Zealand. While some of these were business trips, Marilyn and Bob, often with friends, have had many memorable holidays over the years.
Marilyn was in her 50’s when she finally discovered the game of golf. Bob & Marilyn are both avid players now. They golf regularly for most of the year, wintering at their place in Tampa Florida. They have been fortunate to have had some wonderful golfing trips together with friends in the US, Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and South Africa. Bob has actually golfed on every continent except South America. He plans to remedy this in the future.
In their early 70’s and in reasonably good health, Bob & Marilyn made a major life style change in 2022. Their son David and wife Lindsay had moved to the Kitchener/Waterloo area in 2021 and in April of this year, having spent 50 years living in the greater Toronto area, they followed their kids to KW. Their grand daughter Sophia was born three weeks later. A major new chapter has begun……